A stampede at an Elementary School by parents trying to enroll their kids? Tougher exams for young children? How much is too much? How young is too young? Who does it really benefit? Are children learning for the love of knowledge or for the ambitions of their parents? Tuoi Tre News recently reported on a children's honors test and a school stampede, leading me to wonder is this all worth it? I believe the pressures of an Asian style education are in many ways an invitation to educational disaster, discouraging children even further from individual creativity and emotional growth and strength. And Vietnam could pay a heavy price in the coming generation if young children are pushed too early to ‘achieve’ at the cost of the inspiration they could offer their nation. The desire to leave their children a greater future after the parents are gone is universal. It’s also true world-wide that parents push their kids to study harder and longer than they did, achieve more and so rise in status, wealth and prestige in life and work. Regardless of whether the kids come from a first world or developing country – parental concern over education has been rising since the end of World War 2 and the introduction of the modern educational system. Rising costs of Education versus the advantages gained from a good Education are being increasing questioned. In the first world, Education should add to the economic competitiveness and innovativeness of a country. In the second world, with emerging and rapidly expanding middle classes, Education is now asked to produce people ‘work ready’ for the demands of a modern work force. In the developing world, Education is still the difference between abject poverty, a steady income and freedom from economic worry. Western parents worry about falling educational standards and the quality of schools and the teaching qualities of staff. In the East, parents worry about ‘getting ahead’, competing with other students and other countries on the road to economic prosperity. Yet both cultures claim they want their children to be happy. Asian parents see the future financial and technical achievements of the children as a form of happiness. Western parents would like their children grow confident, able to cope with life’s disappointments and stresses and achieve financial independence. In China, the educational obsession of mothers has created the term: ‘tiger mothers’ – pushing their children from an early age to greater educational achievements. In South Korea, Education has become such an obsession that parents are known to spend more then 50% of the household budget on Education including after-hours classes and private tutors. The pressures in the West and the East are different but with strikingly similar effects on the children. Children as a whole begin life with little sense of relationships other than that of their immediate family and learn to co-operate through a complex series of stages of co-operation and competitiveness. In the west, we strive for developing individual personalities and talents. In the East, the goal is conformity to the ideals of the society and groups you belong to. We have stresses on children to perform well academically in the west but this is usually part of accumulating a wide variety of knowledge and the ability to think creativity, regardless of what the child will do later in life. In Australia, there’s a high emphasis on physical activity aiding mental alertness, creative activities during and after school to uncover potential talent and undiscovered abilities and time to play, read and above all, relate what they learn to the world they live in. Also Australian education focuses on measuring a growing body of knowledge than simply knowing facts and does calculations. We have a grading exam for entry into high school but it doesn’t often hold back or restrict the number of students. We have two major exams in high school. The first in year 10 (16 years old) is entry to the final two years of High school. Students can choose to leave school at that time and take up vocational study or continue. As a Western teacher who has spent a lot of time educating in Asia I would say the emotional and nation building costs are higher. Asian students are invariably shyer and less able to offer solutions, alternatives and ideas. Recently Chinese students overtook American students in academic scores and as a result, Chinese technological achievements and scientific contributions are on the rise – yet art, creativity, innovation and originality have not risen to anywhere near the same level. It’s still true Asia tends to ‘copy’ western trends and technology. It’s rare for a western child to commit suicide because of school results and family pressures yet even primary school children in Japan, South Korea and Vietnam have tragically taken their lives over their ‘failures’ and possible family shame. I’m also a little suspicious of some of the parents motives – in the ‘stampade’ story, children ‘would lose privileges’ and parents could leave their kids there all day. So who benefits? There are hundreds of thousands of parents in other parts of the country who can only dream of these benefits. Physically, the toll can be high. It’s well known that participation in sports and physical activities improve academic concentration, cognitive function (information processing), memory and behavior yet young Asian students forced to study long hours develop long term serious eye problems, later life health problems and particularly lack a balanced emotional outlook and inability to cope with seemingly small setbacks and disappointments. In later life, this pressure can build into resentment, rebellion and rejection of the parents and sometimes, society. It’s rare for a high achieving child to become a well adjusted adult, there is usually an excessive shyness or over the top brashness followed by problems in relating to others and an overriding obsession with perfection. Endless testing and early academic achievement does not always translate into later success. Young children in particular need to ‘piece together’ a sense of the world and their place in it. It is the end of elementary and the first three years of high school, which can make all the difference. Children at these ages are better equipped emotional for the challenge and stress of academic competitiveness. Think about it… if a young kid can speak English well, will the educational system continue to develop that? If not it’s wasted development, time and money for everyone. Students complete high school barely able to speak more than a handful of English sentences… if you constantly test people what will they do? Remember and forget, remember and forget. I’ve had Vietnamese elementary students who cannot remember what they learned three weeks after doing an exam! Better to improve the high schools than drive elementary students too hard. Education should not be an endless hunt for certificates and good marks, there many poor university graduates (even in Australia!) yet many people who left school when they wanted, to follow interesting careers and lives. It’s clear that Vietnam’s old traditions are not going to meet the needs of a modern world or satisfy the ambitions of a young generation growing with the internet and a growing awareness of the world outside Vietnam. Teach kids to paint, dream, imagine, write, read, think, play, create, laugh, smile, be confident… and then you have an adult ready to change the world…